1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to hair retaining devices and more particularly to a hair retaining device specifically designed to give wearers with long hair the appearance of a short hair cut.
2. Description of Related Art
It has long been desirable to many people to keep their hair in varying styles for different occasions. In particular, depending upon the fashion of the day, it has often been desirable for women to keep their hair long for certain occasions, yet give it a shorter appearance on other occasions. One well-known shorter appearance style is commonly referred to as xe2x80x9cpage boy curls,xe2x80x9d which can be generally described as a having the ends of the hair (in back of the wearer) tucked under in a smooth roll.
The prior art contains several devices for creating page boy curls and similar styles with short appearance. U.S. Pat. No. 1,953,531 to Casper (issued in 1933) teaches the use of an elastic ligature secured to two specially designed bobby pins, the wearer""s hair being curled around the ligature. U.S. Pat. No. 2,152,673 to Solomon (issued in 1939)(xe2x80x9cthe ""673 patentxe2x80x9d) similarly discloses netting secured at its ends to a retaining wire. The hair is then rolled around the netting and the ends of the retaining wire, which protruded beyond the ends of the netting, are bent back to secure the hair to the netting. Both of these patents disclose rolling the hair with the curled portion outside of the uncurled portion which is opposite of page boy curls.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,232,979, also to Solomon (issued in 1941), shows a device that is similar to his device in the ""673 patent, except the netting is replaced by a comb and the hair style disclosed has page boy curls, the hair being tucked under. Like its predecessors, this design required the ends of the ends of the retaining wire be clamped around the end of the curl. More importantly, however, none of the aforementioned designs has means for securing the hair to the roller over the entire length of the roller. This produces an unnatural look.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,079,933, also to Solomon (issued in 1963), purported to overcome the problems of the separate clamping operation in forming page boy curls and the unnatural look produced by the prior art devices. The solution was to have a single roller with a pair of tie cords. After the hair is curled around the roller, the tie cords are brought around the forehead of the wearer and secured in front. The use of tie cords are often not desirable, however, as many women prefer to have the hair device completely concealed from observers.
It is thus the primary object of the present invention to provide a concealable hair retaining device that produces natural looking curls in a continuous roll on wearers with long hair, thus giving the appearance of a short hair cut. Other objects of the invention will become apparent from the specification described herein below.
In accordance with the primary object mentioned above, the present invention is a device comprising a single cylindrical roller and at least one retaining pin of approximately equal length to the roller. The roller is made of a flexible material and is preferably hollow with a series of soft teeth disposed therearound. The roller should be long (approximately 7xe2x80x3 for the average person) and slender (xc2xdxe2x80x3 diameter typically). The retaining pins, of which there are preferably two, may have the appearance of enormous bobby pins.
In use, the wearer, who has long hair, places the roller under her hair in back and begins to take up her hair on the roller such that the roller is between the remaining hair and her scalp. Once most of the hair in back below the hairline is taken up on the roller, retaining pins are inserted to secure the rolled hair to the nape of the neck. Ideally, the retaining pins should be about as long as the roller.
The resulting hairdo is a soft roll near the hairline in back. Thus, despite the wearer""s long hair, she maintains the appearance of a short haircut such as a page boy cut.